Apparatus for dyeing textile fabrics and the like



. J. DOLEMAN ETAL 3,237,433

March 1, 1966 APPARATUS FOR DYEING TEXTILE FABRICS AND THE LIKE Filed Dec. 21, 1962 FIG 2 United States Patent 3,237,433 APPARATUS FOR DYEING TEXTILE FABRICS AND THE LIKE Jack Doleman, Cheadle Hulme, and Alan S. Roberts, Manchester, England, assignors to The Cotton Silk arid Man-Made Fibres Research Association, Great Brita n, Northern Ireland, and the Isle of Man, a British association Filed Dec. 21, 1962, Ser. No. 246,622 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Nov. 6, 1962, 41,898/62 5 Claims. (Cl. 68-22) This invention concerns the application of liquids to elongated flexible material and more particularly to textile material and the like, including manufactured articles such as ladder webbing, curtain heading tape, zip fasteners or the like and preferably but not exclusively those con sisting of or containing hydrophobic material (such elongated flexible material being hereinafter termed of the kind referred to) and as a particular example, may be quoted the padding of dye liquor onto a travelling length of such material.

Two difficulties associated with such operations and especially the padding on of dye liquor, are those of obtaining a uniform expression across the width of the material particularly with materials having an uneven surface profile wherein addition there may be a substantial risk of damaging the fabric and/or any mangle bowls through which it passes, and a low liquor retention in the fabric. Conventional padding devices are only partially successful in overcoming these difiiculties and in particular cannot deal satisfactorily with lightweight continuous filament fabrics consisting of hydrophobic materials such as polyesters. The object of the invention is to provide a padding apparatus in which these difliculties are more adequately dealt with.

According to the invention apparatus for applying liquids to elongated flexible material of the kind referred to, includes one nip through which the fabric is passed for the purpose of expressing excess liquor therefrom, the excess liquor being conducted away by a covering of resilient material on at least one roller at the nip, wherein said resilient material is capable of being penetrated by the liquor at least to a depth sufiicient to ensure an absorbency of such magnitude at said nip as to accommodate all the excess liquor from the material as it passes through said nip.

Also according to the invention the apparatus includes at least one pair of nip rollers characterised in that at least one of said rollers is covered at the nip region thereof with a resilient material, capable of being penetrated by the liquor at least to a depth sufficient to ensure an absorbency of such magnitude at said nip as to accommodate all the excess liquor from the material as it passes through said nip.

According to a preferred feature of the invention said resilient material is in the form of an annular cove-ring forming part of the roller.

According to an alternative feature of the invention said resilient material is in the form of an endless belt passing around the roller at the nip region thereof, and supported on one or more rollers remote from said first mentioned roller.

In one embodiment of the invention, said resilient material comprises a foam having interconnected cells, such as polyurethane. In an alternative embodiment said resilient material comprises a foam having unconnected cells, such as neoprene.

Apparatus for carrying out the method of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings of which:

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FIG. 1 shows one form of apparatus; and

FIG. 2 shows an alternative form of apparatus.

Referring now to FIG. 1 the nip rollers A and B each comprise a steel mandrel 10 mounted on an axle (not shown). Each mandrel 10 is provided with an annular covering of rubber 11 (Shore hardness 85) and a further annular covering 12 of seamless uniform foamed polyurethane is provided on the rubber covering 11.

Referring now to FIG. 2 the nip rollers C and D each comprise a steel mandrel 10 provided with an annular rubber covering 11 as before. Around each of the rollers C and D at the region of the nip an endless belt 13 of polyurethane foam is provided. The belts 13 associated with rollers C and D also pass over supporting roller 14 and 15 respectively, such supporting rollers 14 and 15 being spaced from the nip roller C and D.

The use of the rubber covering beneath the foam layer prevents undue wear of the foam by providing a resilient seating therefor.

In order to describe the invention further, by way of example, reference will now be made to tests carried out on a laboratory scale which provide an indication of the improvements possible when using the invention.

Two steel mandrels, each one and three quarters of an inch in diameter, were covered with an intermediate five-sixteenths of an inch thick layer of rubber (Shore hardness 80-85) and an outer half inch thick covering of polyurethane foam. The two bowls thus constructed were six and a half inches long. The bowls were then employed to express dye liquor from hydrophobic fabrics, and afterwards the experiments were repeated using rubber covered bowls of conventional type.

The results were as now set out:

Experiment I In this case the fabric was a plain woven continuous filament Terylene (registered trademark) fabric, weighing two ounces per yard. Using the conventional mangle the liquor retention expressed as a percentage of fabric weight was 46%, whilst using the mangle according to the invention it was 14%.

Experiment II The figures for a fabric made from 33% cotton and 67% Terylene (registered trademark) weighing four ounces per yard, were 47% and 22% respectively.

Experiment III When treating a spun nylon fabric weighing four ounces per yard, the percentages of liquor retention were 44% and 25% respectively.

In all cases, there was a good distribution across the fabric.

It should be mentioned, of course, that provision was made to drain away excess liquor from the ends of the bowls according to the invention.

On a commercial scale a mangle bowl was constructed with foam covered rollers of suflicient size to accommodate a 36 inch wide fabric sheet. The rollers were mounted with a horizontal line of common centres.

A fabric sheet was led from a roll thereof downwardly and then upwardly through a liquor bath, and thence downwardly through the nip of the rollers. Troughs were provided at the ends of the mangle bowl to collect the excess liquor therefrom, which liquor was returned to the liquor bath by a pipe connection.

An example of the use of this arrangement for pad dyeing of 2 oz. plain weave Terylene filament fabric. is, as follows:

Dye recipe: Parts/ 1000 of padding liquor Duranel Dark Blue T 300 (R.T.M.) 100 Duranel Direct Black T (R.T.M.) 100 Urea 100 Lissapol N (R.T.M.) 4

After padding the estimated liquorretention was 30% on the fabric weight and the fabric was very evenly dyed to a navy blue shade.

It will be appreciated that when the nip rollers have a horizontal line of common centres, the space between the rollers above the nip region may be utilised as the liquor bath, the space being supplied with liquor from a suitable head tank, and excess liquor being returned thereto by any suitable means.

In all the above examples the appearance of the dyed fabric showed that the object of obtaining expression of the dye liquor across the fabric had been achieved.

It will be appreciated that it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the above examples only. The nip of the roller or rollers may be covered by any resilient material which is capable of being penertrated to a depth suflicient to ensure an absorbency of such magnitude atthe nip as to accommodate all the excess liquor from the material as it passes through the nip. Other foams having interconnected cells may be used, or foams having unconnected cells may be used, of which latter neoprene has been found particularly satisfactory.

When foams having unconnected cells, such as neoprene, are used the: liquor is conducted away from the material at the nip, primarily by the surface of the roller, whereas when foams having interconnected cells, such as polyurethane, are used the liquor is to some extent con ducted away through the thickness of the foam.

Preferably the resilient material is provided in a uniform seamless state.

We claim:

1. Apparatus for dyeing a textile fabric formed at least in part of hydrophobic material, comprising means including a liquor bath for applying dye liquor to the fabric in anamount in excess of the amount which the fabric can absorb, and means for expressing the excess liquor from the fabric, which expressing means comprising a pair of opposed moving surfaces located outside said liquor bath, at least one of said surfaces being defined 4 by a synthetic resilient foamed material having a cellular structure, and means for pressing said surfaces together with the fabric between them to temporarily deform the cellular structure and relieving the pressure to permit the cellular structure to. absorb all the excess liquor carried by the fabric.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said foamed material has interconnected cells.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said foamed material has unconnected cells.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said expressing means includes a pair of nip rollers, said foamed material being in the form of an annular sleeve carried by at least one of said rollers.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said expressing means includes a pair of niprollers, said foamed material being in the form of an endless belt passing around at least one of said rollers.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 11,727 3/1899 Wendell 68202 102,792 5/1870 Farmer 6899 398,333 2/1889 Johnston 68204 969,952 9/ 1910 Harris 68---22 1,052,399 2/1913 Ashworth 6822 1,370,709 3/1921 Smith 29-130 X 2,195,371 3/1940 Moore. 2,219,663 10/ 1940 Schuster 6843 X 2,378,900 6/1945 Adams. 2,708,763 5/1955 Jacoby 15562 X 2,810,924 10/ 1957 Slingluff, 15230.11 2,852,925 9/ 1958 Johnson 68244. 2,887,863 5/1959 Cooper 6622 2,962,746 12/ 1960 Heroy et a1 15244 2,972,158 2/ 1961 Voskresenski 15-244.0

FOREIGN PATENTS 121,646 3/ 193 1 Austria. 1,186,088 2/1959- France. 1,290,198, 3/ 1962 France.

494,610 10/ 1938 Great Britain.

990,749 4/ 1965 Great Britain.

IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner.

CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR DYEING A TEXTILE FABRIC FORMED AT LEAST IN PART OF HYDROPHOBIC MATERIAL, COMPRISING MEANS INCLUDING A LIQUOR BATH FOR APPLYING DYE LIQUOR TO THE FABRIC IN AN AMOUNT IN EXCESS OF THE AMOUNT WHICH THE FABRIC CAN ABSORB, AND MEANS FOR EXPRESSING THE EXCESS LIQUOR FROM THE FABRIC, WHICH EXPRESSING MEANS COMPRISING A PAIR OF OPPOSED MOVING SURFACES LOCATED OUTSIDE SAID LIQUOR BATH, AT LEAST ONE OF SAID SURFACES BEING DEFINED BY A SYNTHETIC RESILIENT FOAMED MATERIAL HAVING A CELLULAR STRUCTURE, AND MEANS FOR PRESSING SAID SURFACES TOGETHER WITH THE FABRIC BETWEEN THEM TO TEMPORARILY DEFORM THE CELLULAR STRUCTURE AND RELIEVING THE PRESSURE TO PERMIT THE CELLULAR STRUCTURE TO ABSORB ALL THE EXCESS LIQUOR CARRIED BY THE FABRIC. 